Shooting
On September 15, 2001, the 42-year old Roque took his Chevrolet S-10 from the Wild Hare sports bar in Mesa where he had reportedly been ranting about immigrants, and drove to the Chevron gas station owned by Balbir Singh Sodhi, who had emigrated from India in 1989. Roque shot Sodhi five times from his truck with a .380 handgun, killing him as Sodhi was helping landscaper Luis Ledesma plant flowers around the edge of his gas station.
Roque, who apparently wanted revenge for September 11, mistook him for an Arab because of the clothes he wore, his turban, and his beard. Roque then drove to a Mobil gas station 10 miles away. Twenty minutes after the first shooting, he shot at a Lebanese-American clerk from his truck, but missed. Roque then drove to his former residence which had been purchased by a local Afghan family and fired multiple rounds at the outside of the house. After fleeing from the final shooting, Roque was reported to have gone to a local bar and boasted that "They're investigating the murder of a turban-head down the street."
Within 25 minutes of Sodhi's death, the Phoenix police reported four further attacks on people who either were Middle Easterners or who dressed with clothes thought to be worn by Middle Easterners.
Read more about this topic: Murder Of Balbir Singh Sodhi
Famous quotes containing the word shooting:
“One ... aspect of the case for World War II is that while it was still a shooting affair it taught us survivors a great deal about daily living which is valuable to us now that it is, ethically at least, a question of cold weapons and hot words.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)
“... though it is by no means requisite that the American women should emulate the men in the pursuit of the whale, the felling of the forest, or the shooting of wild turkeys, they might, with advantage, be taught in early youth to excel in the race, to hit a mark, to swim, and in short to use every exercise which could impart vigor to their frames and independence to their minds.”
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